The newly appointed executive director of Atlanta’s Center for Puppetry Arts, Beth Schiavo (founder Vincent Anthony announced his retirement in 2019), was in an interim leadership position when the shutdowns began. “Our employees were nervous,” shares Beth. “We shut down before it was official in our state. We had to determine how we could maintain engagement with our audiences but still feed our passions as artists.” Before the shutdown, as part of Boston’s Puppet Showplace


Theater’s 50th anniversary preparation, they explored “What are our values connected to professionalism?”


“It was great to have this clarity when the crisis hit,” shares artistic director Roxie Myhrum. “We brought our full staff together and asked what are we excited about? What are we feeling pressured about? What do we want to do?” While we may not all have a board of directors, permanent locations, or even staff, as tours are cancelled and uncertainty looms, there is much to be learned from these nonprofits that serve both adult and family audiences and have survived decades of change.


What do we have, and where is the need?


“There was so much online, we were focused on keeping that connection with our local audience,” explains Nancy Smith. Outside the Great Arizona Puppet Theater, there is a west-facing patch of land intended for a future expansion, which presented a perfect parking spot for an outdoor theater. Their current shows were too small to be seen from a distance, so they visited some old, fuzzy friends. “We had created a repertory of puppets [from our original tours] whose bases were already six feet in the air. We were excited to pick through our puppets and see what we could use to substitute into existing shows.” They put in some platforms, learned how to connect their soundboard to transmit to people’s car radios, and had patrons register their car type when they purchased their tickets to create parking patterns that


up, and we realized that the virtual platform is accessible to those who might not be able to attend an event at the theater. We knew a puppet slam had to come next.” With 18 acts, all connected to the theater, Roxie pulled inspiration from the Virtual Met Gala. “Opera singers were interacting between performances; it was like a backstage pass to something you don’t normally see. We gave our audience a similar experience. We usually sell out live at 85 seats. We had over 460 households RSVP. Instead of charging, we asked for a donation and made four times the amount we normally would.”


Honey Goodenough, Puppet Showplace Theater, resident teaching artist, performing Stewie's Magic Hat. Photo: Roxanna Myhrum


"We were excited to pick through our puppets and see what we could use to substitute into existing shows.” They put in some platforms, learned how to connect their soundboard to transmit to people’s car radios, and had patrons register their car type when they purchased their tickets to create parking patterns that maximized visibility for a DRIVE-IN PUPPET THEATER!


maximized visibility for a DRIVE-IN PUPPET THEATER! A presenting theater without a repertory of shows, Puppet Showplace Theater “started using the word connect,” shares Roxie. “Our art practice as puppeteers is one of care, a life-giving art form. We wanted people to feel a part of something. The first thing we did was a virtual hatchery where people share ideas and works in progress. We usually average five attendees; 30 showed


At the Center for Puppetry Arts, a collection of separate departments came together to share ideas. “We have an incredible leadership team with deep expertise,” explains Beth Shiavo. “We said forget your budgets; now we are one budget. What can we do? It took pressure off of each individual department.” The digital learning department quickly moved to a leadership role. They had been using Zoom for over a decade to stream live shows to audiences all over the world. “My department [of three people] didn’t sleep the first two weeks,” jokes program director Sara Burmenko. “We are the face of the center for people who can’t come here. Our shows were already designed for this platform, and we already had video conferencing equipment. We stacked the week with eight programs. We asked, what are the parents’ needs? We thought of our ‘Make- Its’ templates and decided to come up with puppet-making segments from what you have at home. Digital learning content creator Jeffrey Zwartjes led the way, and suddenly other departments were visiting our space and realizing the value of connecting in this way.” Aretta Baumgartner,


education director (and PofA president) said, “Suddenly digital learning wasn’t just a department, it was a way of doing things. As educators, we had to ask, is this the best way to teach this? We met with our Teen Puppet Club before the shutdown and said, tell me what you’re getting from this.


They all agreed ‘companionship,’ so that made sense to translate to a virtual setting.” Under one umbrella, education was able to share short “Puppet Pows” that taught about the art of puppetry while digital learning shared content that used puppetry to deliver important messaging. The museum offered virtual guided tours, and production was able to pull archived footage from


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